When the GC took out our bulkheads (soffits), we discovered that they were framed in, not just installed on top of the orig cupboards. They were filled with attic insulation, plus the largest wasp nest I've ever seen - at least 15" in diameter.

We drew lots to see who got to poke it to see if it was still occupied. It wasn't.

We found a can of Carling's Black Label beer, a Reader's Digest from 1970, and a newspaper ad for a "guaranteed" fishing lure. The best was a note from the original owner written on the sub-floor, "House built 1952, kitchen remodeled 1971, by Allan Greene."

We have a big space in the corner behind the sink cabinet, so I'm going to throw in the front page of that week's Sunday paper and maybe a family photo with the date.

I found a 1950 penny and a newspaper from a paralyzing blizzard Dec. 28,1950. Also the coolest old linoleum pieces. I bet there was more but it would have been under two layers of subfloor and the flooring on top of the subfloor. We didn't take it up. Now I wish I would have left it under there. I put the newspaper and the penny in a plastic bucket along with a couple of current newspapers, magazines, and some color ads from the Sunday paper and it's walled up behind the microwave cabinet.

In the bathroom remodel my carpenter found an old letter talking about a scandal the family had been involved in at the time. Also a photo of someone's grandparents 60th anniversary and lots of kids artwork. All of it had fallen behind the built in drawers so I don't know if it was all from the same people or not.

There was a thread about this last year, too, with lots of interesting things found.

Hang on to your lithograph card. If nothing else, put it back in a new wall or frame it and hang it on the new wall. I'm going to find some way to display the square nails from my kitchen. I'd love to find an old picture of my house and put it and the nails in a frame. Not likely to find a picture, I'm afraid.

Out of currosity I googled your card. Unfortunately, the antique place who sold it requires a membership $. So my advice stands. Hang on to it!

Here is a link that might be useful: Cheetah card

Two houses ago we gutted the kitchen, including tearing the plaster and lath off the ceiling. Directly above the kitchen was a bedroom, which clearly was a boy's bedroom at one time. We found old checkers and dominos . . . and an empty "tin" of condoms. I kept all those things somewhere and now I can't find them -- time to start looking again!

We found pieces of old newspapers from the 1930s and someone's initials carved into the chimney (unfortunately hidden now by the new oven cabinet), along with layer upon layer of flowered wallpaper. And lots of old mouse droppings---does that count as a "treasure"?

We "added" treasure when we remodeled.

When the kitchen was done with the rough frame-in, we had a sign the rafters party for about 20 of our closest friends.

A pack of sharpies and some interesting notes were left behind, along with a couple of empty beer bottles.

We live in a home originally built as part of a section of town crafted by the Union Pacific Railroad at the turn of the century. We are in the Union Pacific 2nd Addition of our community. We found a Union Pacific embossed antique handsaw in the living room wall behind the plaster and lathe. We also found the Memorial Day editions of the Laramie Daily Boomerang and the University of Wyoming Branding Iron newspapers from 1930 or 1932 (can't remember right off hand) between the layers of subfloor in our bathroom. We also found a receipt for lumber and a post card to the occupants dated 1913. Well, that and several mouse mummies. :) Oh, and a really old Juicy Fruit gum wrapper (it's green and yellow striped rather than the yellow I've known all MY life.

When I had the house re-sided last summer, the contractor found a sign underneath the old stuff that said Built by so and so in 1956. It's really cool. I told him to put his sign under the new siding that said so and so fixed the mess in 2009! hahahaha...It is a cool thing tho to find that stuff!

Teresa

Wallpaper, in the bathroom it was this gold and orange butterflies hidden behind the large mirror. The kitchen had layers of wall paper from the 60's green and yellow flowers to the 70's fruit baskets and the 80's green and pink striped. It is interesting to me what was "in" back then.

A 1950's newspaper stuffed under the bathroom window frame. When I took it out I could see the snow outside through teh gap - there's a good reason it was there! Also old newspaper printing plates from the 70s used as roofing on a small hut in the backyard (doghouse? chicken coop?) and several bits of tools, like an old hammer head.

Maybe the thousands of rusty nails in the back yard count too. Every time I dig a veggie bed I pull out another 20 or so, and have been doing so since 2005.

Ha! My GC found a tape measure and empty coke can my DH had left in the studs from our DIY remodel 25 years earlier!

We hired our local Habitat affiliate to do the demo, and the very saddest part was that I *love* old houses and history and I suspect we missed out on a lot as a result...but we had a messy chimney removal involved so on balance it was worth it.

What we did find:
- Scraps of a newspaper---the rest was gone by the time we got to it, so we're not sure when it was from. It was a JC Penney's ad that had some items advertised for 4 cents and 49 cents, though, so I'm guessing it may be original to the house (circa 1915)---we're near San Francisco, so there may well have been Penney's here already since it was a West Coast chain.

The other fun thing we found was a penciled drawing of our breakfast room built-in. It was added sometime after the house was built when they converted a laundry porch to a bigger breakfast room---maybe in 1939, when we know there was a big remodel b/c they pulled permits, but possibly after then. But they had sketched out what the built-in was supposed to look like on the wall---it didn't end up looking quite like that, funnily, but was pretty close! We still haven't decided what to do with this section of wall---it's old beadboard while the rest of the room is plaster, and one of our contractors is advocating for leaving it because it has "character." (It also, unfortunately, has old plumbing hookups sticking out of it, which is the big argument for changing it...)

The other fun find was how many colors the kitchen has been painted over the years---one was even pretty close to the color we're thinking of! (It's been peach, red, multiple greens, blue, and white---at least!)

We're going to put some "findings" from today in behind the cabinet for any future remodelers, though---probably some snippets about our city, what's happening in the country right now, and who we are.

I was helping my sister remove layers of wallpaper during the remodel of her c. 1880's home. As I was steaming away layers of paper a picture of a little girls face popped through. Years and years ago someone had lined the walls with these very cool vintage posters to cover up imperfections in the wall. None of them were salvageable which was a shame because they would have been wonderful framed.

I found sections of the NY Times real estate listings from (what I think is) the 1920's. Apartments in Manhattan for $7-$20/month!

found a tic tac toe game on the original sheetrock. Would have been from the 50's. Looks like the cat won!

Found some cool 1938 newspapers tacked inside the walls of an enclosed porch (that I was opening back up).

I have added some stuff to the insides of some walls; I lost a section of "fishing rod" (for electrical wire pulling) inside a chimney chase two tears ago, and still haven't figured out exactly the best way to retrieve it.
Casey

Sombreuil! You found our Penney's ad!! (Well, not exactly, but pretty durn close!) We thought the styles were too dated and prices too low for it to date to our '39 remodel, but guess not---that's the same era for sure. Thanks!!

Under floorboards I have found mirrors, old glass, perfectly preseved brown paper bags full of blue chalk - various objects - newspaper lining walls (insulation) - lots of 'advertising' stuff - a very old photograph - early 1900's of a man (the guy who built my house was a contractor/builder and this was his house, old flags, license plates, curtain stretchers, tools and objects i have no idea what they are - behind a pantry wall we found big sheets of cardboard - so i thought - turned it over and found advertisements for bread, macaroni, old calendars, yardsticks advertising coal and coke (we are mounting the advertisements as they are big and on heavy board - all kinds of stuff - but the most interesting is a huge Beech nut gum advertisement of a picture of a baseball game (yankee stadium) from 1918 - all the men (thousands!) in suits and all wearing hats - it covers a wall and part is under the tin ceiling. I found that another poster (exact same) was auctioned off for over $6,000.00 in the 1990's - now to get it down and sell that - to cover other remodels!

found a whole bunch of glasses and glassware sitting on the cabinet top behind the soffits:

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Your local historical society might love copies of some of these things, especially letters or news articles about a local event or family.

Our town was founded in 1924 -- so not particularly historical compared to many places, but it has some homes that are much older. Many of the older, smaller homes have been torn down and replaced with new homes, so much of the history is being lost. Our local historical society has started taking pictures of old homes before they're torn down and trying to document some of "the way things were."

I think some other people would get a kick out of seeing copies or pictures of what you've found.

So jealous of your treasures! We found an uncapped, live 220 line, miles of phone and electrical wire connected to nothing, a beesnest the size of a turkey platter, lots of cricket legs, a roach (obviously from whomever did the original wiring!), a half dozen beer cans (Nattie Boh, with holes poked in the side) and a pizza box. Must have been some party...

Two years ago when we remodeled the bedroom side of the house we found a 1968 Schlitz can in the bay window soffit and a 1970 Pepsi light can in the attic. We int turn left a mason jar inside a wall with a letter about the remodel and a state quarter.

This year doing the kitchen, the only things we found were uncapped pipes, loads of wires not attached to anything, tons of junction boxes, a tool, a penny, oh and a couple of dead mice. We again left a mason jar with a not about the remodel and a few before photos.

Behind the bathroom chase we found 2 different wall papers - we believe one is the original from 1825. We found a lot of old wallpaper behind stairs, trim, etc. - most from late 1800's. I made my contractor save it all and it will be framed and hung. Our walls were never painted - always wall papered and only 1 layer except for the kitchen.

Above our 1st floor kitchen ceiling (and a foot below the 2nd floor floor was an old painted wide pine floor. It's been covered since 1914 and we believe it was from the 1840-1860's (when that addition was added). We will use this wood in the built in bench for the kitchen.

We still have coal in the attic coal fireplaces used by the servants. I'm guessing it's over 100 years old. I tell my kids they will get that for XMAS if they don't behave.
I kept telling my contractor any jewels or gold is mine. No luck. When we removed the stairs and added a main staircase we added a time capsule which included essays from my 2 kids (their daily routine - weekend and school day starting with waking up to the alarm clock, pushing the snooze button, turning on the light (150 years ago there wasn't any electricity), etc. plus their favorite books, movies, music, etc. I added our conversion/house remodel plans, pictures of the street and downtown area plus the local Sunday Boston Globe. I don't expect the stairs to be opened or moved for 100+ years.

I've already posted up about this but for those who missed it: after a catastrophic flood my apt. was completely demo'd and frescoes from what was apparently 'The Tower Room' of the St. George Hotel (now cooperative apts.) were discovered. Flowers, leaves and birds in the kitchen and palm trees all around the 2nd floor where the master bedroom is now. I live in the top of the tower of the hotel and where there are now three apartments (2 duplexes and my triplex) there was originally one large nightclub/event room.

sadly all the paintings were covered with the white, mold resistant paint which they sprayed throughout after I took these pictures.

sadie

Here is a link that might be useful: St. George Tower Frescoes

We found the same items as many of you - old newspapers from the 1920s, old coke bottles, etc. Our house was built in 1877 and there was at least one find I wouldn't classify as a 'treasure', but certainly a surprise!

We returned to the house one night after work late last fall to check on progress. Outside the front of our door was a box of ... bones. They were digging out under the first addition put on our home (addition was probably done around 1900), it was the old summer kitchen. Our foreman was quite confident that they were animal bones (phew! - but I actually asked him if he thought we should call the police), probably thrown out under the old summer kitchen more than a century before. As I said, hardly a treasure, but interesting nevertheless! Luckily we didn't have to turn the house into a century old cold case investigation.

Our home is circa 1700.We have a deed from a col.George Himes was in battle of Gettysburg in 1800.We completely restored our home before we moved in,Behind the baseboard we found a bible,a bone handled knife,hair pin,a metal coin button not sure.
I hid some things about our house history I knew 1 each of our currency ,newspaper in the wall.I did that also on our last home.Last home we built.So I had dates etc.

In Minneapolis there was recently a Prohibition-era liquor stash found in the walls of a house. Has been sampled by historical society donors--a fund raiser! An informant has indicated that this stuff is drinkable AND concentrated!

As for wallpaper, when we were taking down plaster in two bedrooms in our house, we started by stripping wallpaper. Turned into a plaster removal project when we found that the wallpaper was the ONLY thing holding the plaster up. At any rate, we cut a section of the wallpaper at the top edge of the wall and laid it in the solution. We were able to separate 23 distinct layers of wallpaper. Some were UGLY. Some were quite pretty. We also found a section of our house where a bay window was added and built from local signage. There are also baby footprints in our basement concrete floor which is probably 40's-50's era. No name,just little feet at the bottom of the stairs.